Thomas Jefferson, Socialist

[ChoppinBroccoli]

"Another means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise. Whenever there is in any country, uncultivated lands and unemployed poor, it is clear that the laws of property have been so far extended as to violate natural right." - Thomas Jefferson

[Kingofalldems]

1. Kick and Rec one time for the teabaggers

[scarletwoman]

2. It's a great quote. I wish you had included the cite for it, which would make it more valuable. (nt)

[ehrnst]

3. Cite; Jefferson to James Medison - 28 Oct. 1785

http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch15s32.html

[elleng]

4. Excellent. Should be posted/wallpapered EVERYWHERE!

Heard a bit of repug's religious dog/pony show yesterday, wherein one of them lambasted PrezO for saying this has been a great country since 1964, or somesuch, as 'we all know the founders . . . endowed by their Creator etc etc etc and been a great country ever since the beginning???'

Don't WE know that the founders were NOT theists????

[Nye Bevan]

5. Nice. Except that he owned over 600 slaves (nt)

[Solomon]

11. And dat be a lot of damned slaves.

A lot.

[provis99]

6. I tried to explain the progressive income tax in class once.

And one of my idiot students blurts out "That's communism!". I was going to explain how Adam Smith, founder of conservative economics, favored the progressive tax, as did many of the Founding Fathers, but then I decided, eh, there's no point; you can't teach someone who won't think...

[snot]

7. Bookmarked; & thanks for the cite, ehrnst!

[Towlie]

8. I guess we can forgive him for his lack of concern for the environment. How could he have known?

[Quantess]

9. good find!

[Scuba]

10. Excellent, thanks. Note TJ's emphasis on property, not earnings....

...we need a progressive capital gains tax.